We are new to Facebook this year. Our goal is to utilize it as an information platform not a chatting location and we will try to post monthly at a minimum.Posted via Mobile Device

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I think you'd be better served using a blog platform on your domain as an info resource and FB to direct people to it. If someone is searching on a topic you write about, better to have Google take them straight to where all your company info is.

Facebook should be used in your marketing mix, but definitely not as your primary, or even secondary, method (is "thirdondary" a word?). To me, it's entirely a complimentary marketing component. 1%-16% of the people who Like your Page will be potentially exposed to your Status update in their feed.

Of all of the Lawnsite members FB Pages that I've visited (a lot), there are exactly two that I see doing anything that I would consider interesting or shareable, which is the cornerstone of FB marketing. Several others I've visited are quite close to doing it very well, but they're a bit too obvious in their tactics and messages.

(To those two, yes, I liked seeing the Ikea chair that can be used outdoors. Thanks for calling it to my attention. Would look great surrounded by pops of highly contrasting color! And, to the other, yes, I though it was cool you have a friend who won a Grammy. I have a friend who once won one and it was a fun fact to learn. Either way, as loose of a connection as it may be, it stuck in my head. That's what you want when it comes to marketing and branding. You want "sticky", even if it's not directly related to your lawn-striping ability. )

There's another FB thread currently going on in the Business Managment subforum that might be worth a read.

Nope..when I said "an hour" that was meant as sarcasmn....LOL. Ive been thinking about the facebook thing, and seems it might be a worthwhile addition. Not sure if regular posting are necessary, but each month maybe listing what services to consider, monthly specials, stuff like that. Maybe a complete listing of our equipment and listing of services.

Not sure if regular posting are necessary, but each month maybe listing what services to consider, monthly specials, stuff like that. Maybe a complete listing of our equipment and listing of services.

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You already have a list of services offered on your site, right? And are your clients and prospects really going to care what equipment you have?

When posting to FB you need to ask yourself two things: will my audience care about what I'm about to post? And will they care enough to like this post, comment on this post, and/or share it with their friends? People aren't on FB to do business, they're there to waste time and be entertained. If you can serve up your marketing message in a way that isn't sales-y, you're gold.

FB is a big feedback loop. Tony has mentioned that 16% or so of your fans will see your posts unless you pay for a big ad buy. However, the quality of your post can impact how many people see it! At the end of the day, FB's goal is to keep people interacting w/ FB as long as possible, and they do that by serving up content they think users will want to see. The more people interact with your post, the more will get to see it - and potentially future posts.

I'm lucky in that as a designer, I make my living being a little funky and weird, so I can carry that through to my page. Still everything reinforces my branding message, that I provide awesome landscape design to homeowners and contractors by knowing my plants, knowing my materials and methods, and paying attention to trends. You need to figure out what branding message YOUR FB page is reinforcing,

To illustrate my point, here are screenshots of three posts I've made on FB. The top one is the obligatory happy holiday post that no one cares about because EVERY brand on FB does it. 59 people got to see it, which is probably 59 more than cared.

The second one, I asked a question. Asking questions can be huge. Sometimes it flops, but sometimes it can drive engagement. This one ended up seen by 134 people. Notice one like and 9 comments (some of which were my responses, of course).

The last one is another question, this time asking people to stake out an opinion on something I knew was probably a love it or hate it proposition. 8 likes, 18 comments, and 225 people saw the post.

Now before you get too excited, don't forget that FB isn't really a lead generation platform. but, if you use it to reinforce your brand message, you can stay top of mind with your clients and shape their perceptions of who you are and how you do business.

Thanks Tony. I think the best way to look at social media is to treat it like networking. Successful networkers are interested in other people, have interesting ideas, and aren't asking everyone for the sale. It's simple, and yet we all suck at networking until someone shows us how it's done.